Hope-filled letter
by these dreams go on
Summary: Post Season 1, Pre-Season 2. Marcel sits down and writes a letter to Baby Hope to tell her the things he will now never get to say to her. Tiniest bit of Camcel.
1. Chapter 1

A/N- Hello. So this is the shortest story I have ever written but the idea came to me during the trailer for TO Season 2. Klaus and Hayley are clearly mourning Hope after she's been sent away but nobody is considering Marcel and how he feels being accused of her murder and compelled to forget what happened to her. So I wrote this on a fifteen minute whim,

* * *

_Sister._

_My little sister. _

_I don't suppose you'll ever read this letter…or any letter, after all you're...dead. _

_Or maybe you're with your grandparents on the Other Side- your maternal grandparents that is- and they're watching me write now and will whisper these words into your ear. _

_If there is some kindness in the universe, just the tiniest bit I hope you will somehow know…_

_Just how sorry I truly am. _

_I never meant you any harm. I never really ever considered you as a living being until you were in my arms so small and frail that I was terrified that I would accidentally crush you. _

_You're the first baby I ever held. Isn't that strange? Two hundred years on this earth and you were the first new born I ever cradled. _

_I didn't have a clue what I was doing but damn…it felt good to sit there and watch you sleep, it healed me of some of the grief I was feeling. _

_I don't think I'm supposed to remember that. Klaus compelled most of my memories of you and your fate from my mind but somehow….someway the image I have of holding you in my arms is so burned into my brain that I have to believe it is real. _

_I have to believe that you and I had one moment together in your too short life, one moment when you weren't afraid or being hurt._

_People are saying that I murdered you, I want you to know that's not true. I can't remember how you died but I know from that one memory I have of us together that I would have given my life to see you safe and I would have crawled across broken glass in Hell for eternity if it meant that you could have lived. _

_But I don't care what people think, let the rest of the world condemn me as long as you and I know the truth. _

_I would never have hurt you. _

_I wish you hadn't died. I would have liked to have known you, to watch you grow up, I think you would have saved Klaus in a way I couldn't. I think you would have belonged to him in a way I never did and he would have loved you more than anything else in existence. _

_I found your mother two nights ago. _

_I know you died innocent with no knowledge of the evil of our world or of hatred and revenge but if it means anything wherever you are- your mother mourns you every single day and is hunting those who killed you. I walked her home, after all, she __was_ _is your mother, I have to love her for that and she told me your name._

_Hope. _

_Fitting I suppose, because with you gone our lives are hopeless. _

_I don't know if it's any comfort to you but for the six hours you lived in this world, your passing has caused such grief to those who loved and would have loved you that we can't breathe unless we're mourning you. _

_And I don't even really remember you. _

_But you were special and you __were_ are loved. 

_And I'm sorry that I couldn't save you. _

_Your brother, for I suppose that's not something I'll ever not be, even if I never get the chance to be.  
_

_Marcellus Gerard._

* * *

There was a single candle in Marcel's apartment across the Mississippi. A converted warehouse that had been decorated with the theme of rustic elegance in mind, it had perfectly adequate electricity and heating.

Still, there was a single candle standing in the largest window. It was two feet high and several centimeters thick, a plain white candle with a firm wick.

And every night, no matter what, from sundown to sunup it burned strong and true.

"Why do you do that?" Camille asked one night as he took out the box of matches she'd bought him, "I've seen you do it a hundred times now but you've never explained why"

He held the match to the wick and waited for it to catch aflame before turning back to her,

"For Hope" he answered shortly, not knowing if she understood.

He lit it every night so that if his sister was on the Other Side, she'd know he remembered her and if Hope ever returned to the world…perhaps she would follow the light back home.

He stared into the flame until it hurt his eyes,

"Pardonnez-moi Hope"

* * *

A/N- Pardonnez-moi (French) Forgive me


	2. Chapter 2

A/N- So I have no idea whether or not this is the last chapter. I just felt like giving the story a less depressing ending. Also I'm wasting time when I should be updating Moving In or completely crazy idea- doing my uni work!

* * *

_Dear Hope,_

_For so many years you were dead and I mourned you. My little baby sister, the family I would never know and the salvation none of us would ever receive. For so long there was no hope in this world and then…_

_You burst into New Orleans like the sun breaking through the clouds and I knew you. _

_The moment I saw you sitting cross-legged on the street bench outside Lafayette cemetery, waiting patiently to be found even when you barely understood how lost you had been and that you had finally come home to all those who loved you. _

_You breathed life into the city of the dead. _

_You defy expectations and surprise us all. _

_You were supposed to be dead and you weren't. _

_You were supposed to be lost to us and you weren't. _

_You're supposed to be at _home_ right now and you _aren't_. _

_Instead you're passed out in my bed with a hangover that'll probably damn near kill you when it hits. _

_Although if the hangover doesn't get you, your mother will. _

_And then she'll kill me for not ratting you out but hey, you don't betray family. _

_I love that I'm able to say that. You don't betray family. You and I aren't related by blood and I know that I'm 'a million years old' but your father raised me as his own son and from the moment I held you in my arms you were irrevocably my little sister._

_And you don't betray family._

_Even if you are threatened with werewolf venom. _

_I'm still __hoping__praying that your father will grant me a stay of execution, after all, better you end up sleeping in my bed than…what was he said, oh yeah,_

'Getting drunk and ending up pregnant with the child of a complete degenerate' 

_Because apparently once is enough for the Mikaelson family. _

_But you turned out pretty amazing, even if you do consider rainbow dyed hair a sensible life choice._

_I don't know why exactly I'm sitting down and writing this letter to you when you're one room away snoring loudly- really loudly, we should get that checked out- and I could say all this to you but once, long ago when I thought you were lost to all of us I sat down and wrote you a letter asking for your forgiveness. _

_I failed you then, when you were a little baby and so tiny and fragile. _

_So I guess I'm writing this so that you have my oath on paper. _

_Hope Mikaelson, I will _never_ fail you again. _

_Whether that's giving my life to protect you, loving and supporting you as your older brother, or even giving you a place to crash when you get completely and illegally wasted on your sixteenth birthday. I will always be there for you. _

_I love you little sister. _

_Thank-you for coming home._

* * *

There's a brisk knock on the front door and Marcel leaves his dining table to check through the peep hole, spotting the familiar blonde hair and blue eyes. With a sympathetic wince, he pulls the door open to allow Klaus entrance.

"Is she here?" the hybrid asks breathlessly, "She never came home last night and…"

Damn.

"She's here" he assures her quickly, "Crap, I should have called, I'm sorry…"

Klaus breathes a sigh of relief, "Where?"

He gestures and the anxious father flashes into the bedroom, taking in his prostrate daughter sprawled across the bed, drool dripping from her mouth as she snores.

An amazingly gentle hand strokes a bright green lock back from her face, before draping his jacket over her back and making his way back to the main area where Marcel is texting Hayley and Elijah to let them know that his daughter is safe.

"Do you know what it was?" he asks quietly, able to see the humour in the situation now that the terror that has been lodged in his heart for seventeen years is temporarily defeated.

Marcel snickers, "Every last drop of liquor you could ever hope to find in New Orleans to hear her tell it"

Klaus grins proudly, "You should see the state of Bourbon St I'm surprised anything is left"

"Right and how're Hayley and Elijah taking this?"

At the reminder of Hope's mother and uncle he shoots off a quick text to them both, assuring them that he has definitely found her, has visual proof and proof of life.

"Well, Hayley is going to threaten her with military school, because of course teaching a child of mine how to fire military-grade weaponary is going to end so well"

Marcel's laughter is cut short by the groaning that precedes Hope's entrance into the room.

"Fetch me a priest and some aspirin" she begs, shuffling across the floor blindly and walking straight into her father's open arms. Klaus jerks his head at him to join them but he lets them have this moment.

After all, they have so many years together now. Decades and centuries before them.

"You know," Klaus releases his child to try and glare into her brown eyes- he fails miserably, instead his face is lit up with love and laughter,

"Every last werewolf and vampire in Louisiana is looking for you right now"

Hope seems spectacularly unimpressed that she warranted the supernatural version of mobilising the National Guard,

"I need fast food" she moans, shivering as she grabs the cardigan off the table and drapes it over her head while she eases her father's jacket off so that she can put the other layer on.

"You need a bath" Klaus tells her, "Preferably before you mother gets a whiff of you and I get blamed for your drinking habits"

She groans again and looks to Marcel for salvation, "I claim sanctuary"

He shrugs, "Claim it all you want, this isn't a church and I'm pretty sure your mother won't give a damn"

"I claim asylum?"

Marcel raises his eyebrows, "Crap, she has us there. If she can prove going home is life-threatening"

Klaus laughs and kisses the bright red crown of her head, "Come along my vulnerable pup, Hayley's fury and Uncle Elijah's boring lecture awaits"

Hope digs her heels into the floor but even a hybrid witch in boots is no match in strength for a thousand year old alpha,

"I thought you loved me" she whines as Klaus drags her to the door, Marcel shakes his head, already knowing what's coming,

"I do sweetheart, that's why we're stopping off at your favourite restaurant for breakfast first"

Marcel smirks and waves goodbye as the father and daughter climb into the car and drive back towards Bourbon St.  
Belatedly remembering his letter, he folds it up and places it on the desk shelf where the first letter he ever wrote her is starting to go yellow with age.

He'll show them to her someday.

* * *

A/N- There we go.


End file.
